In casino table games, wagering was originally done (and in many circumstances is still done) exclusively by the physical placement of money, currency, coins, tokens or chips on the gaming table and allowing the wager to remain on the gaming table until conclusion of the game and resolution of the wager(s). The placement of physical wagers on tables allows for some players to attempt to commit fraud on casinos by late placement of wagers, alteration of wagers and particularly placement of side bet wagers, bonus wagers and jackpot wagers.
Side bets, bonus and jackpot payouts can reach levels of hundreds of thousands of dollars at gaming tables and the temptation to commit fraud at a table increases. Similarly, the casinos need to prevent fraud increases to assure the game is fair to players. With the linkage of games (e.g., different games) within a casino or among different casinos, a uniform standard of control is needed that assures equal avoidance and prevention of cheating at all tables and at all facilities.
In the past twenty years, numerous systems have been provided or disclosed for the automated recognition of wagers, including side bet, bonus and jackpot wagers. Among the disclosures of these types of technologies include U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,964 (Jones) in which a sensor detects when a gaming token is dropped into a slot on the gaming table and a coin acceptor is mounted to detect the passage of a gaming token through the slot.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,544,892, 6,299,534 and 7,367,884 (Breeding) discloses an apparatus for detecting the presence of a gaming token. This apparatus has at least one predetermined location for receiving a gaming token on a gaming table. At each predetermined location for receiving a gaming token designated on the gaming table, a proximity sensor is mounted to the gaming table such that each sensor is aligned with one predetermined location. A decoder is electrically connected to each proximity sensor for determining whether a gaming token is present at each predetermined location. When the presence of a gaming token is sensed by the decoder, the player's bet is registered by transmission of the sensed presence to a processor. Each sensor in these systems has a parallel connection to a processor (e.g., game processor or system processor) where the individual wagers are recorded and identified. In a preferred embodiment, there is a backlight under the predetermined location that lights up when a wager is made at that location, and remains lit when the processor identifies acceptance and recognition of the wager during each game or round of play at the gaming table.
Systems with parallel connections between wager sensors and processors are still believed by applicants to be susceptible to individual manipulation, at each wagering position and are difficult to install. There are also limits on the number of sensors that may be connected in parallel to the processor. Additional forms of technology are believed necessary to increase security in casino table wagering games, and to make installation easier and faster to accomplish.